


The Lilac Maid

by Cym0rg



Category: Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger
Genre: Bisexual Character, Canon Compliant, Chrono Cross References, Courtly Love, Courtroom Drama, Cultural Differences, Eventual Smut, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Minor Original Character(s), Multi, Pining, Platonic Relationships, Post-Canon, Road Trips, Self-Esteem Issues, Slow Burn, Time Travel, yes i said courtroom drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:49:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26081467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cym0rg/pseuds/Cym0rg
Summary: It seemed an ill-fitting end to their friendship, if that was to be the end.
Relationships: Ayla/Kino (Chrono Trigger), Crono/Marle (Chrono Trigger), Lucca & Crono, Lucca & Robo, Lucca Ashtear/Frog | Glenn
Kudos: 7





	The Lilac Maid

**Leene Square, Truce**  
**1000 AD**

The morning after the millennial fair carried with it a decisiveness. A finality. The summer-cries of the cicadas conquered the sweltering breeze, drowning out the softer sounds of nature with their dull hum. The colorful streamers that had once reigned triumphantly over the square, declaring festivity, were stripped of their positions - returning the square to it’s usual sun-beaten yellow-green.

As the merchants packed their wares, dismantled their tents, and the crowds that had once traveled from all across Zenan trickled to a halt, there was one simple promise: that there would never be another event like that in their lifetime.

And yet, as she took in the newly-barren alcove cresting the hill, somehow the greatest sorrow Lucca felt as she watched the fairground wither wasn’t in the end of the fair. Her eyes landed on the spot where the gate that had once whirred with the vacuum of space-time had once been, and closed forever. 

“Kinda sad to see it go, huh?” 

Crono’s voice broke the thoughts she was allowing herself to be lost in. 

“Oh, yeah. Guess so,” she blinked and tore her eyes away in response, heaving another metal appendage onto the cart.

“I’m kinda bummed we basically missed the whole thing!” Crono stretched with one arm above his head. “I mean, when’s the next time we’ll ever get to see a millennial fair?”

“We do have a time machine,” Lucca reminded him. “Give me a week and I’ll find a way.”

Crono laughed heartily as he loaded a series of pipes far too heavy for her, setting them down with a metallic clatter. Lucca winced.

“Careful!” She barked in warning. “I want to be able to put this telepod up again, you know!”

“Sorry, sorry! I wasn’t paying attention.” Crono raised his hands in defense.

“You can make it up to me by helping me set it up back home.”

Crono drew in a sharp breath between his teeth.

“About that… Um…”

Lucca glanced up from where she was disassembling the telepod’s engine. Through the sheen of her thick glasses, one of her eyebrows raised in dubious curiosity. 

“I sorta had something already going on tonight.” Crono’s hand found the back of his head, undoubtedly toying with the knot of his white headband. He took a moment before elaborating - though Lucca was unsure why he was hesitant to tell her. It wasn’t as though he’d never had to cancel their plans before, even if it was uncommon.

“I told Marle I would have dinner with her and her father at the castle. He wants to get to know me, she said. Properly and stuff. Since, y’know, the last time we met, I was escaping prison.”

“Oh yeah,” Lucca pretended to look wistful. “Good times.”

“Maybe for you. I actually want him to like me.” 

Crono loaded the last collection of parts onto the cart, taking the opportunity to push his ginger hair back and sigh. The midday sun’s relentless domineering made their labor all the more taxing. 

“Looks like that’s the last of it,” he said. After a small pause, he looked at her apologetically. “Sorry about bailing on you, by the way.”

Lucca placed her hands firmly on her hips, leaning forward abruptly. He nearly flinched. But as he got to study her, he realized that her expression was one of deep amusement rather than any sort of offense.

“So, does this mean Marle’s your _girlfriend_ now?” Lucca crowed, her lips drawn into an uneven, juvenile smirk.

“Well, I don’t know! I haven’t really asked her or anything! What’s with that look? Geez, you’re acting like my mom!”

“Wonder what Nadia’s bell will sound like on your wedding day?” Lucca speculated loudly.

“You’re hilarious.” 

“Sure am. But I’m only half joking, you know,” Lucca admitted, spinning around to face Nadia’s bell. It wasn’t far, resting on the landing a set of stone stairs beneath them. Between it’s marble pillars, adorned with red roses, it shone with beaming silver, reflecting back the sunlight that caught it even more brilliantly. It suited Marle, she thought. “She really likes you.”

“You think so?” Crono came to stand at her side.

“She was devastated when you died.” Despite herself, Lucca couldn’t prevent the frown from threatening the edges of her mouth. “We all were, but it was especially hard to watch her deal with it.”

“Oh…”

“So!” Lucca turned to face him suddenly. “She pretty much thinks the world of you. But if you happen to screw it up, tell her to call me, yeah?”

“No way!” Crono exclaimed, his face flushed as he stepped back. “You can’t date my exes! You’re my best friend, there’s got to be some kind of rule about that!”

“Worry about making her your girlfriend before you worry about making her your ex,” Lucca snickered. Crono gave her an uncharacteristically nervous laugh as she elbowed his ribcage lightly. It was a bit surprising, Lucca thought, for Crono to be anxious in any capacity. She’d often found herself wondering if he was simply born without self-preservation instincts at all. How curious to see that she was wrong. 

The pair situated themselves on either side of the cart - Crono pulling, Lucca pushing - to roll the telepod to the entrance of the square. They reunited with Taban, who was waiting with a horse-drawn wagon to carry the disassembled machine along the final leg of its journey. Crono rode with them into town, until they arrived at the fountain in the center of Truce, when he leapt from the wagon with reckless abandon. He began his sprint home with a backwards wave over his shoulder, and a goodbye that was lost on the wind. 

“In a hurry, isn’t he?” Her father’s voice filled the space Crono left. 

“He’s meeting with the princess tonight.”

“You’re not going with them?”

“It’s sort of a closed event,” Lucca said. Taban grunted in benign acknowledgement and gave the reigns a light whip, just enough to quicken their pace.

“So now that you’re home, are you going to tell me everything that happened?” Taban asked, and Lucca was glad for the question. “How did my armor hold up for you? You’ve been away for the entire fair, we were worried about you.”

“The armor was perfect, dad. It saved my ass in more than a few fights.”

Taban gave a bellowing laugh before patting his daughter on the shoulder. 

“I know my girl could’ve handled them on her own. But I’m glad they helped you out. Guessing you and your friends stopped… what was it? Lavas?”

“Lavos,” Lucca corrected, giving their surroundings a brief scan to ensure they couldn’t be overheard. Thankfully the cobblestone road of Truce was beginning to give way to the dirt paths of the rural land beyond, and Lucca allowed herself to speak the name freely. She could hardly blame him for the mistake - for as often as she had heard the name, her father must have only heard it a handful of times. She was grateful for that.

“I can’t believe my own daughter invented time travel,” Taban mused. “I always knew you would do great things, but that was beyond even my hopes for you.”

“I wouldn’t say I invented it,” Lucca studied the ground passing beneath the wheels. “I just kinda stumbled into it, really.”

“You mean to tell me you didn’t have a hand in that… flying ship you’re storing in the front yard?” 

“Of course I tinkered with it here and there, when I found the time. I probably understand it pretty well by now. Didn’t build it myself, though. I’m not that good, yet.”

“Yet,” her father echoed proudly. “So then, what are you planning to do with it now?”

“I’m not sure,” Lucca admitted, “I imagine I should probably get rid of it at some point. The future is one we can look forward to, and everyone’s gone back home.”

“Seems a shame to destroy such an incredible machine,” Taban said. “We could probably stand to learn a lot from it, don’t you think? But I know you’ll make the right decision, whatever that ends up being. If you ever need help with it, you just let your old man know.”

“Thanks, dad.”

The pair arrived at the eponymous Ashtear Isle by the time the sun was setting over the horizon. Lara was waiting by the door to greet them. Lucca could hardly believe the sight of her mother standing on her own two legs, even less so when she joyfully trotted over to help unload the wagon. The family ate dinner together, and both of her parents demanded the full story of what she had been up to since she had followed Crono and Marle through the time gate. Lucca was happy to oblige, somewhat relieved that she didn’t need to keep the entire adventure to herself. She wondered if Crono would tell his mom the truth, or if Marle would try to explain their journey to the king. 

She said goodnight to her parents once they finished, and Lucca noticed that they both hugged her much longer than normal. She clung to them both for as long as they wanted, finding untold comfort in their embrace.

She kept the lights dark as she ascended the staircase to her bedroom. The sky was clear that evening, providing her plenty of moonlight to see by. As she entered her room, she couldn’t help feeling like a stranger in her own home. Her belongings were untouched, left precisely in the haphazard mess they had been in before the fair. Even the pile of books still rested neatly on her bed. She hadn’t used it the night before the fair, she had been busy making final touches to the telepod. Once cleared, Lucca settled into her bed and stared at the dark ceiling.

She should have been grateful to trade the flat bedrolls and tents for her own bed. She should have been exhausted and relieved to enjoy her first night in a world with a future of their making. She should have slept soundly and without a care in the world. Sleeping should have been easy. But it was not. 

The gnawing fear that the best days of her life were suddenly behind her bit down again, and even as she shifted in her bed to try and get comfortable again, she couldn’t escape its hold.

The very fabric of the universe had opened itself up to her. The illusion of time’s rigidity was shattered forever, and now its true nature was bare for her to see. She had met incredible beings from years past and years yet to come - the first true friends (apart from Crono) she had ever known. Would they ever be together in one place? Would she ever hear their laughs again?

Eventually she stood and walked over to the glass window overlooking the yard and pressed her hand to the cold pane. The epoch nested outside, its iridescent panels shimmering in the moonlight. Her thoughts wandered back to her earlier conversation with her father. The responsible thing would surely be to destroy it, to bury its power and the secrets of time with it, _but how could she?_

A selfish thought bore into her. Both Crono and Marle had bright prospects ahead of them in this era. Marle would someday inherit the throne, she would be both needed and undoubtedly beloved by the entire kingdom - and after all they had experienced together, Lucca was certain that Crono would stand proudly at her side. They would embrace their new lives with open arms. There was something here for them to return to.

Lucca looked over her shoulder, gazing at the shambles of her hard work. While someday, she suspected her research would have value - no, have _meaning_ \- would she see it before she faded from this world? She remembered the jeers of the crowd the morning she unveiled her telepod, the whispers and the looks of contempt from the fairgoers. 

Did she truly want to return to that? To once more struggle for a mere scrap of recognition, after all she had seen? Was she ready for this to be her life’s purpose, when all that survived her was her name and steel?

Her hand fell away from the window as she returned to her bed, but the glint of glass on her nightstand caught her attention. A framed image of herself and her friends, all posed together and smiling, taken on the grassy knoll outside of her house. Her father had insisted on it, and as embarrassed as she had been in the moment, the group seemed enthralled by the idea. Magus was the only one not present among them. He was not present when the image was taken, though Lucca suspected he wouldn’t have cared to be in it anyway. 

Marle hung on Crono’s arm, with Crono flustered by the contact. Ayla sat in the front and brandished her club proudly. Robo towered over them all, leaning slightly to one side from Lucca herself using him as a pillar of support. Turned away from the group, Frog rested with his hands on his sword, looking stoic. 

Frog.

 _No, not frog,_ Lucca shook her head. She hadn’t called him that since Crono’s fateful encounter with Lavos. His name was Glenn, and she would use it regardless of which was more descriptive of his form. He was much more than that, after all, and the idea that she had once been blind to that filled her with searing shame. 

She thought of his farewell from the previous night. It was brief. Unsatisfying. There was no doubt in her mind that Ayla was already returning to lead her people, and Robo, in whatever future he returned to, was built with some purpose he could now surely fulfill. She canted her head as she looked over the form of the frog, wondering what his future held for him - if there was any chance he could feel as she did. 

It felt an ill-fitting end to their friendship, if that was to be the end. 

If the feeling persisted in the morning, Lucca decided that she would find something to do about it.

-

Night snuck back over the horizon, and Lucca awoke to learn that the hole in her chest had not gone with it.

She wasted little time filling her satchels and making her way outside. The dawn was still dim and rosy, leading Lucca to believe that her parents were still asleep. If all went well, she supposed she could be back later that afternoon. If they saw the Epoch missing, surely they would understand.

“Leaving so soon, Lucca?” Her mother’s voice proved her wrong as she approached the Epoch. “You’ve only just come back…”

Lucca turned to face her mother, who was putting clothes on the line. 

“I’m sorry, mom,” Lucca was unable to keep the shame from her voice. “I just… There’s one more loose end I want to tie up, before things go back to normal. Don’t worry about me. I won’t be gone long, I promise.”

Lara’s brows were furrowed in expression of motherly concern, but if she had any sort of protest, she kept it to herself. Slowly, a faint smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. Weary, bittersweet, but sincere.

“I’ll always worry about you, Lucca. I won’t even pretend I understand the things you’ve seen - but I won’t stop you. You’re a woman now, and a smart one at that. Just promise me that you’ll be safe.”

“I will,” Lucca promised, approaching to give her mother a parting hug. “I love you. Tell dad, too.” 

Following the farewell to her parents, Lucca climbed into the Epoch and turned the dial to 600 AD.

**Author's Note:**

> lucca/glenn is a good ship and i'm here to write it the tender, drawn out romance fic it deserves


End file.
